p. Sergio La Pegna, dc, Superior General
Dearest, the Holy Year has begun, a sign of peace and hope in a world where unfortunately wars continue to be present everywhere. In this year, we are accompanied by the official Jubilee cross, made of wood and hand-crafted by the master craftsman and carpenter Riccardo Izzi. On the main side, it features the depiction of the glorious Christ, a sign of Hope for the world, in a time of great global crises, in which men and women express in every way the extreme need to be able to hope. On the other side of the cross is the official logo of the Jubilee 2025, a symbol of hope for the faithful from all over the world.
Together with what the Pope and our Bishops are offering us to live this time of grace well, I would like to offer some “doctrinaries” ideas, recalling the two Holy Years experienced by Saint Caesar, namely that of 1575, the year of his so-called “conversion”, and that of 1600, the year in which the Doctrinaries officially received the house and church of Saint John the Elder in Avignon.
Let us leave the floor to Fr. Larme who thus recounts the event that happened to Cesare in 1575 while he was in Avignon for the Jubilee: “One day, giving in to the insistence of his friends, he felt obliged to go to a dance. At midnight, on his way home, in front of the monastery of Santa Chiara, he heard the nuns singing psalms. He stopped then and exclaimed: These young virgins are keeping vigil to praise God, but you are running to gravely offend him. At these words, he felt such deep sorrow that he immediately knelt down in front of the door of the monastery church and, with clasped hands, implored God’s forgiveness for his past. He then made the resolution to renounce forever the vanities of life and to consecrate himself definitively to the Lord”. The next day, on the occasion of the Holy Year, he made his general confession to the Jesuit Father Pierre Pequet and manifested his firm will to live for the Lord. This episode, together with what he had experienced previously thanks to the help of Antonietta Reveillade and Luigi Guyot, shows that in Saint Cesare there was a strong desire to harmonize his life with his faith. This concern for righteousness towards himself and towards God profoundly marks the spirituality of the Founder.
For us too, the Jubilee can be a precious opportunity to draw ever closer to the Lord Jesus, to always remind ourselves that our goal is one: the encounter with Him (cf. Spes non confundit n. 5). Of course, we know it! But we often let ourselves be taken up by other matters and commitments that make us forget this fundamental truth. The invitation to drink from the sources of hope is addressed first of all to us, first of all by approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation, “the irreplaceable starting point of a real journey of conversion” (Spes non confundit n. 5).
For Saint Caesar, the Holy Year of 1600 came at a time full of suffering, and not only physical. The community had just entered the monastery of Saint John the Elder and some ecclesiastics tried to make it leave, not considering the new Congregation a true Religious Order. In this context, Pope Clement VIII, thanks to the mediation of Cardinal Tarugi, on August 30, 1600 sent a Motu Proprio from Rome with which he entrusted the house and church of Saint John the Elder to Saint Caesar.
This event, in the Holy Year of 1600, gave great encouragement to Saint Caesar and his first companions. And so, even though it was made up of few members and had very little income, the Congregation was born in poverty and fragility but with the great desire to transmit the treasure of Christian Doctrine. From this house of Saint John the Elder, which remained a point of reference and mother house for the Doctrinaries until the French Revolution and where Saint Caesar died and was buried until 1836, the life and mission of the Congregation began to prosper. The fame of the Institute spread rapidly and many cardinals and bishops wrote to Saint Caesar insistently asking to found a “House of Christian Doctrine” in their Diocese. This was a special grace of the Holy Year for Saint Caesar and for the Congregation of the Doctrinaries which began to develop in France not because of the great economic means at its disposal but because of the strong desire to do “the exercise of Christian Doctrine”.
Dearest, may the Holy Year also be an occasion for us to trust ever more in Divine Providence. Let us ask the Lord for the “grace of Saint John the Elder”, that is, the gift of being authentic disciples of the Lord Jesus with a passion for catechesis. Happy Holy Year to all.
